Solidarity Resolution

This resolution was written for locals to pass and take action on. Feel free to adapt for your own use.

Verizon Strike Solidarity Resolution

WHEREAS, 39,000 Verizon employees who are members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electric Workers (IBEW) went on strike on April 13 along the East Coast; and

WHEREAS, our brothers and sisters in the CWA and IBEW have been working for Verizon without a contract since August of 2015; and

WHEREAS, in addition to outsourcing jobs, Verizon wants to cut job security for its workers, keep union members working in locations away from their homes and families for as long as two months, freeze pensions at 30 years and cut retirees’ health care coverage, cut benefits for workers injured on the job and cut healthcare benefits; and

WHEREAS, Verizon insists these cuts are necessary despite massive profits: $39 billion over the past three years and $8.9 billion in 2015 alone;

WHEREAS, according to proxy statements filed for 2015, five of the top executives at Verizon each earned more than $6 million in 2014, in cash, equity and other compensation, and the Chairman and CEO Lowell C. McAdam made $18,260,568, making him one of the five highest paid executives in the telecommunications sector and one of the 200 highest-paid CEOs in the United States according to the Equilar 200 Highest-Paid CEO Rankings;

WHEREAS, CWA members and supporters in the Verizon Strike Solidarity Committee are calling on local unions across the country to lend their support through concrete actions across the United States; and

WHEREAS, a victory for the Verizon workers would be a victory for all working people, just as a defeat in the Verizon strike would be a defeat for workers everywhere;

RESOLVED, that our local union will stand by the striking Verizon workers by publicizing this resolution of support, donating to the national strike funds of the CWA and the IBEW, and adopting a Verizon wireless store for regular membership picketing.